My granddaughter is 3 years old and loves to dress up as a princess. This month we chose Cinderella from Disney’s Cinderella because I think of pumpkins in fall. Also, her carriage is made from a giant October pumpkin!
Princess Cinderella is a kind, graceful, attentive, optimistic, dreaming 19 year old girl from France. Her sidekick is Jaq is a little house mouse.
Cinderella quote: “A dream is a wish your heart makes.”
Proverbs 3:15 states, “She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.”
We went to a local chapel to take these pictures on the front steps. She wore her Cinderella dress with her white gloves, headband, and necklace. She wore her white dress shoes with the low heel. I found this large clock with the Roman numerals on Facebook for free. I spray painted a white pumpkin with silver glitter. And I found this star wand and tiny glass slipper on Amazon.
Here are some more of my toddler and preschool photoshoots:
I put together some small fall items that I found at our local dollar store to create a fall themed Tot Sensory Tub. She liked sorting and using the toddler tweezer.
This tub kept her happy for a long time and we could practice sorting and counting all the objects. We sorted by color and by item, then we counted each pile. We had orange pumpkins, leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; yellow corn, leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; red leaves, feathers, and fall jewels; and brown acorns, leaves, and fall jewels.
The kids are growing up so we tried some more activities geared toward teens this year! We carved pumpkins, had chili and caramel dip, roasted hotdogs and smores, then we finished with a Candy vs. Chocolate bracket.
Campfire
We let the kids roast hot dogs and s’mores. Storm really loved meeting the “big kids” friends that came over for the evening.
Fall Foods
Roasted Hot Dogs
S’mores
Carmel Apples (red, green, yellow apples) with mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and sprinkles
Hot Cocoa & Apple Cider
Chili with cheese, crackers and corn chips
Homemade Chili Recipe
Ingredients:
Chili Brick
2 lb. ground beef
3 cans of kidney beans
1 can tomato soup
1 Cup water
Directions:
Brown the beef and drain.
Mix all of the ingredients in a big pot and bring to boil.
Lower heat and simmer until chili brick is dissolved, at least an hour, stirring occasionally.
Pumpkin Carving
The kids carved their own pumpkins with our pumpkin carving tools. I helped Storm care a lightning bolt in her pumpkin while the baby watched.
Candy vs. Chocolate
This was one of the kids favorite activities this year! I purchased a bit of each kind of candy and the kids all tasted them one by one and filled out their brackets as they went. Then we looked at them all to find the winner “Kit Kat”.
Storm Trunk -or- Treat
We decided to participate in the kids school Trunk-or -Treat at the last minute. We decided to use a STORM theme because I still had the props that I had made for her STORM birthday party that we could use. She dressed in her rainboots, raincoat, lightning bolt earrings, and umbrella. I also put her hair in pigtails, parting it in a zig zag pattern to look like a lightning bolt. I wore my “Storm Chaser” tee shirt from her birthday party.
We went to the backyard forest for these pictures. These three girls are cousins; we decided to take the pictures for as a Christmas gift for the grandparents.
This year it was unanimous that we wanted to dress as the X-men for Storm! I found most of the costumes at used clothing stores and made most of the other props.
X-Men Sign
Materials:
Cardboard
Scissors
Brown Spray Paint
Gold Sharpie
Cricut to cut letters
Directions:
Cut a large oval and small circle from the cardboard.
Paint both brown.
Cut out letters with the Cricut and attach to the sign.
Use the Sharpie to make a gold ring around the oval and circle. Make a gold X in the circle.
Mutant Pumpkins
I took the kids to the pumpkin patch to find pumpkins. They choose “mutant pumpkins” which were perfect for our Trunk-or-Treat theme of X-Men.
X-Men Trunk
I decorated the trunk to look like the gate/wall outside of Professor X’s school. Stone wall, vines, sign with address for the school, and some “mutant pumpkins”. We dressed as the characters in the 80’s Animated X-Men Series.
X-Men Costumes
Storm
I made Storm’s costume from an old white onesie and some yellow ribbon. I also made the red circular “X” badges out of some buttons. She is the reason that we chose to dress as the X-men this year!
Professor X
My 15 year old son dressed as Professor Xavier. We barrowed my mother-in-law’s wheel chair and I found a green suit and blue tie at Goodwill. It was a perfect find!
Jubilee
My son’s girlfriend dressed as Jubilee. We found all of her pieces to her outfit at Goodwill as well. The gloves are just yellow, rubber dish gloves. I made her glasses with paint pens and an old pair of sunglasses that I found. I made the earring from the red buttons that I used from Storm’s costume. People who watched the cartoon as kids knew exactly who she was!
Gambit
My younger son wanted to be Gambit, so I found a Gambit T-Shirt on Amazon. Then he used a large brown and a ski mask. The wig was from Goodwill sold brand new!
Phoenix
My step daughter wanted to be Phoenix, so I found a Phoenix T-Shirt on Amazon. Then she used a green tights and boots with yellow dish gloves. The wig was from Goodwill sold brand new!
Rogue
I dressed as Rogue and found Rogue T Shirt on Amazon. I wore green tights, an olive colored jacket, black headband, gold boots, and yellow dish gloves. I made the X’Men coms with red foam and a black sharpie, then we pinned the to our outfits!
Wolverine
My husband dressed as Wolverine. I found his Wolverine shirt on Amazon too. The boys also had some claws in their play stuff, but we lost one, so he just had 1 claw in this photo!
I chose Disney’s Cinderella for the October princess since there is a pumpkin in the movie. It makes me think of fall and I think it would be fun for future Cinderella pictures.
I placed a light white sheet for the background and then a fluffy baby pad for her to lay on. I love ivy and pumpkins. I wanted to incorporate the pumpkins, but I didn’t want to have bright orange in my magical fairyland; so I spray painted sliver onto some pumpkins and they turned out great! I found her these silver star magic wand , glass slipper, and silver castle.
Two months old this October, and I love pumpkins! It was a bit chilly so I had to do an outfit change at the last minute. I was just going to do the tutu and bow, but added the overalls; it turned out so adorable!
I used a basket that I found in the kitchen and the crate that we use to keep things in the living room, so I didn’t have to buy any props except the pumpkins!
She really did not enjoy this photo shoot very much, but I did manage to get a smile near the end.
We have been dressing up for Halloween as a family for the past few years. Since the kids are getting older, this year we decided to participate in the Trunk-or-Treat event rather than attending it. We volunteered our trunk at each of the boys schools and also at our church. So we could use our Star Wars decorations more than once! Two of our event were moved in doors due to an early snowfall this year.
Star Wars Sign
Materials:
Black Poster Board
White Paint and Paint Brush
Print out a Star Wars logo
Glue
Pencil
Directions:
Glue the Star Wars logo to the top of the black board.
I used a pencil to free hand the words on the sign “May the Faith be with You”.
Then I covered the pencil with the white paint.
R2D2 Pumpkin
Materials:
Oval orange or white Pumpkin
White and Grey Spray Paint
Blue, Black, and Red Sharpies
Directions:
I spray painted the bottom half of the pumpkin white and the top half of the pumpkin grey.
Let it dry VERY well, or the paint will come off with the Sharpies.
Then I used the Sharpies to decorate the pumpkin to look like R2D2.
BB8 Pumpkin
Materials:
Large Round orange or white Pumpkin
Tiny Flat orange or white Pumpkin
White Spray Paint
Orange, Black, and Silver Sharpies
Directions:
Spray paint the pumpkins white.
Let it dry VERY well, or the paint will come off with the Sharpies.
Then I used the Sharpies to decorate the pumpkin to look like BB8.
Star Wars Trunk
We decorated the trunk with a black table cloth hanging in the background. Then we hung white Christmas lights all around. We added some Star Wars Light Sabers with our sign and pumpkins. We passed out glow sticks instead of candy.
Star Wars Costumes
Chewbacca (My older son had a Chewbacca onsie costume that he wore).
Luke Skywalker (My younger son wore his Martial Arts top with a belt, some khaki pants, and wrapped some old white socks around this ankles. He also took one of his toy Light Sabers.)
Princess Leia (I braided my hair on the side and wrapped it over my head. I also wore a white button shirt with khaki pants and boots. I had a tan jacket that I wore too. My son gave me a toy gun as well).
